Here's the rewrite:
Real Leadership Comes from Empathy
I came across an article in INC. magazine today that I could not stop thinking about. It focused on a CEO who summed up his company's remote work decision in ten words. Those ten words say everything about what emotionally intelligent leadership looks like in practice.
Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, surveyed his employees about where they wanted to work. The results came back: 7% wanted to be in the office full time, 31% preferred a hybrid arrangement, and 62% wanted to work fully from home. His response? "Sounds great. Do whatever you want. If you get your work done, that's all that matters."
That is it. No committee. No policy debate. No performative flexibility theater. Just a leader who listened and got out of the way.
This is consistent with who Dan Price has always been. In 2015, he restructured his entire company's compensation model and set a minimum salary of $70,000 for every employee. He ran the numbers, believed in his people, and made the call. It was not about optics. It was about genuinely understanding what his staff needed to live well and do good work.
COVID changed the rules for everyone, whether companies were ready or not. The organizations that responded with empathy and adaptability kept their people. Those that clung to rigid, outdated expectations found themselves on the wrong end of the Great Resignation, watching talented employees walk out the door in search of workplaces that actually respected their lives outside of work.
So what is emotional intelligence, and why does it matter so much right now?
The dictionary defines it as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships with good judgment and empathy. That definition sounds clinical, but the reality is deeply personal.
Think about what the past few years looked like for most families. College students and high schoolers doing classwork from their bedrooms. Parents managing their kids' education while keeping up with their own jobs. Households with four or five people all competing for bandwidth at the same time. My own family was no exception. My wife and I were grocery shopping for her parents and dropping food at their garage, kept at a distance while they disinfected everything we touched. That was our routine for months.
Now multiply that by every single person on your team. Each of them was carrying their own version of that story. As a leader, you are not just managing deliverables. You are managing people who are managing entire lives at the same time. That reality has to be part of how you lead.
Will Rogers once said he never met a man he did not like. When his life was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1991, his character described a practice rooted in his Native American heritage: walking around to the other side of a person to see what they were seeing. To understand what drives someone, what worries them, what they are working toward. That is empathy in its most practical form, and it is how I try to approach every conversation with my team.
When I work with someone, I always come back to three questions:
- What has their experience been?
- What motivates them?
- How can I help them reach their personal and professional goals?
A leader who asks those questions, and actually listens to the answers, builds something different than a leader who just manages tasks.
The INC. article also included a list of leadership practices worth keeping visible:
Show genuine personal interest in your people. Communicate expectations clearly and early. Set reasonable norms around response times for messages and email. Check in regularly, not to monitor, but to support. Coach rather than micromanage. Give people room to take smart risks and explore ideas. Treat mistakes as learning, not failure. Recognize good work loudly and often. When things go sideways, give feedback that helps rather than harms.
I would add one more. Invest in your people's future, not just their current role. The best thing you can do for your team is make sure they are growing, that they have the skills to do their jobs not just today but in the environment that is coming. Workplaces are changing fast. A good leader makes sure their people are ready for what is next.
High emotional intelligence, paired with strong communication and a genuine commitment to your team's growth, is what separates managers from leaders. It is also what keeps good people from leaving.
What is your EQ?
